Bounded Innovation Management: Mapping the Patterns of Innovation in a Small Software Development Organization

In this paper, the second draft of a new model (Bounded Innovation Management Model, BIMM) based in part on systems thinking principles, is presented to contribute to the research being conducted in mapping patterns of innovation. This is an exploratory study in the application of BIMM to a small innovative software development company in New Zealand. The eight constructs of BIMM (structure, communication, control, emergence, role, incentive, outcome and whole system) are applied to individual employees’ responses in order to gain insights into innovative pattern mapping within the company. From analyzing the data from these individual responses within this company it has been discovered that: (i) evolutionary innovation patterns oscillate about and are contained by, the bounds that are in place through management practices; (ii) revolutionary patterns of innovation tend to operate outside such bounds and oscillate in the surrounding space; (iii) creative patterns tend to be stifled if completely contained within management bounds; and (iv) employees’ perceived mappings of patterns of innovation may vary from the actual patterns within an organization.